Sand and Gang Wars
by Japanese and Chocolate
Summary: When Juliet was ten, she didn't know what a gang was. Nor what a war was. She could not, therefore, understand that her family was part of a gang war. For movie las challenge:  Character  at age 10. Romeo   Juliet.


**Name: **Sarbear12456/Japanese and Chocolate

**Story Title:** Sand and Gang Wars

**Character/Relationships: **Juliet, Nurse

**Rating: **PG

**Warnings: **none

When Juliet was ten, she didn't know what a gang was. Nor what a war was. She could not, therefore, understand that her family was part of a gang war. Her parents were sure to keep such things from her. She existed in her own carefully constructed world with dolls and toys, and rose covered walls to keep the filth from her.

On one particular evening, midsummer, she enjoyed those lovely walls because they blocked her view of the city, but not the ocean beyond it. She air had crispness to it, welcome after the long hot day, and it caressed her skin like the silk sheets on her bed. A breeze came off the water she glanced so longingly at, because she had never really gone to the beach. No, she had a pool right at home, free from dirt and grime and sand. But she wondered what that sand felt like.

"Nurse," she began, turning to the middle aged woman beside her, preparing to ask a question her mother would have dismissed out of hand, "what does sand feel like?"

The woman looked at her, a smile gracing her face. "Sand feels like…" She trailed off, trying to explain how something so common as sand felt like. "Sand feels like getting scrubbed clean, getting a new fresh layer of skin. Rough, but in a good way."

Juliet looked up at her with wide eyes, processing the information, and then nodded when she had added it to her mental list of Things I Know About the World. Though, really, such a simple description could never really justify the sensation of sand rubbing over your skin as someone tried burying you while you tanned. "Why don't I ask your mother if we can go to the beach tomorrow, then you're ireally/i know what sand feels like."

Juliet flung herself at Nurse, and stretched her tine arms as far as she could around the woman's larger frame, a thanks for sticking her neck out in front of her mother and offering the woman an axe. Because she didn't know what a gang war was, but she did know her parents.

The beach Juliet had admired from afar was more startling up close. The water was a deep blue, one that her pool could not imitate with its pitiful splash of water. And she called it pitiful because nothing could come close to approaching the size of the ocean. A thin line on the horizon became a moving platform that stretched out with no end.

"It's ihuge/i." She said, unable to find any words more descriptive or eloquent for the body of water before her.

"I know." The older woman said, a smile in her words and on her face. "Now put on some sunscreen before you turn into a lobster". Juliet obeyed, unwilling to break the tenuous agreement that allowed her this little freedom. Once the task was complete she walked forward and fell face first in the sand, unused to accommodating for the shifts in the sand as she walked.

"Ugh, it sticks." She wrinkled her sand covered face. "How do I get it off?"

"You go swimming"

Juliet understood the appeal of the beach much more for actually experiencing it. The waves were wonderful, and she floated over them under Nurse's watchful gaze. And when she tired of the soft lulling waves, she could move further into shore and dive under white capped ones that tried to chase her up onto the beach, like playing tips with the sea. So she was understandably upset when Nurse all put dragged her from the water.

"But iwhy/i do we have to go!" She whined in a voice that sounded much younger than she was.

"Those boys over there are Montague's. We can't be here."

"Why? They're just iboys/i" She said.

"You'll understand one day." She said, before once again trying to pull Juliet's arm off in a hasty retreat.

When Juliet was ten, she didn't know what a gang war was. She didn't know she would outgrow dolls and toys, that roses had thorns, or that filth was a matter of definition. She didn't know walls could become cages, or sand could rub skin raw, or what love was like.

When Juliet was ten, she was happy.


End file.
